Re: [pyrnet] walking off-leash

["Ann K. Wetherilt" <wetheri@emmanuel.edu>]

The trainer we had when Paddington was a puppy led weekly "pack walks" in
a 600-acre reservation south of Boston. All the dogs were her clients so
had had some basic obedience training and the walk itself was a training
exercise. That's the only context in which I was totally comfortable with
Paddington off-leash, and even in that situation, Shelley was never
totally reliable if she wanted to go exploring. (She was 5 years old
before she came to live with us, so hadn't had the early training.) The
only problem we eventually had with Paddington in that situation was that
he came to be very protective of the whole pack, and tended to think that
he had to protect his pack from any other dog that approached! We
eventually had to walk him on leash for that reason. I use giant
flexi-leashes to walk Tori and Ivy Rose. Given that both are shy and
timid, I second Sariena's observation that the leash gives them a measure
of security.
Ann, Peg, Ivy Rose and Tori